Panel agenda for Air Quality After 9/11 conference, March 2004

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

“Succumbing to public pressure, the EPA changed tack in May, 2002 when a special hotline was set up to assist residents have their homes tested and cleaned. This action was criticized by Joel Shufro of the NYCOSH: ‘It’s a shame these measures were not taken at a time when they could have prevented the heavy exposure to the toxic dust that covered lower Manhattan..’ Unfortunately, Manhattan residents are not the only ones at risk from domestic exposure to asbestos. Robin Howie, an occupational hygienist, is concerned about asbestos levels in the homes of Ground Zero recovery staff who unknowingly took fibers home on their clothing. Once indoors, this ‘contamination’ could have become airborne and inhaled by family members...Everyone who was in Manhattan on September 11“ should thoroughly decontaminate their homes...Anyone exposed to asbestos should stop smoking immediately to reduce their lung cancer risk.”

“Although the EPA’s belated decision to address indoor asbestos contamination is something, it is, critics say, too little, too late. According to William Henning, Chairperson of the NYCOSH: ‘The limitations that the EPA has chosen are completely inexplicable....World Trade Center contamination is a public health problem and the EPA is treating it like a public relations problem. By what logic can they agree to clean up a residence but not a workplace in the same mixed-use building? Do they think that the dust cloud and smoke that filled lower Manhattan for four months only contaminated residents? They ought to clean up all Trade Center contamination wherever it exists, and they ought to do it in accordance with the EPA’s own regulations in the federal National Contingency Plan, which call for a cleanup that is much more thorough than the one the EPA now plans.’Congressman Jerrold Nadler agrees:’ it’s a major health catastrophe. We’re allowing it to happen, and it’s immoral because people are going to die from this.’ He believes that EPA’s plans are tragically flawed ignoring, as they do, small businesses, firehouses and thousands of residences in Brooklyn which were hit by the toxic plume. Dr. Cate Jenkins says the Agency’s new cleanup plan “is grossly inadequate,” using discredited techniques and inferior equipment. Although 30,000 Manhattan apartments qualify for the $7,000 EPA clean-up, the decontamination program is voluntarily. The effectiveness of cleaning up selected units while others remain polluted will be compromised by the circulation of air and dust through common air vents and systems.”

In a previously cited letter to Congressman Jerrold Nadler, on September 3, 2003,

EPA senior chemist Cate Jenkins accused the agency and the New York City

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